I Started Playing Genshin Impact Again (2026 Latest Edition)

2026/01/16 Update#

Apparently I get to go back to Mondstadt again, in an Interlude Chapter called “Paralogism,” and I want to try it. But even though I’ve finished the Natlan Archon Quests, it’s nowhere to be found in my quest list.

Maybe I have to finish every Interlude Chapter so far. So I decided to start with the Chasm one.

For that I need to finish Arataki Itto’s Story Quest, and for that I need to finish Sangonomiya Kokomi’s Story Quest.

I knocked them out one by one, in reverse order.

The Chasm Interlude (“Perilous Trail”) was way, way longer than I expected. Fairly entertaining, though. I finally got to meet Kuki Shinobu, who’s been carrying me all this time. I’d assumed she was a cool character, but she turned out to be surprisingly funny.

While working through the story, I decided to build up my team too.

I want to level up Furina, whom I pulled on my last login day and then left sitting there, and Noelle, who suddenly turned into LOVE after I set her as my Home Assistant voice.

I got both of them up to Lv. 88.

As you’d expect from the representative of the nation of water, Furina’s Hydro application is ridiculously good. Pair her with Nahida to spawn a pile of Dendro Cores, then set them off with a Kuki Shinobu with boosted Elemental Mastery for Hyperbloom reactions, and the damage is insane.

Furina drags the whole team into self-harm, so apparently she works really well with Noelle, whose attacks heal the entire team while her shield is up. I wasn’t chasing the meta or anything, but it turned out to be a wonderful build plan.

So my current farming team is Nahida, Noelle, Furina and Kuki Shinobu. Until now I’d put Nahida up front and just kept applying Dendro, but it seems that Hyperbloom damage only triggers a few times per fixed interval, and past that it does no damage. So to push DPS higher, it looks like putting Noelle up front instead is the way to go.

I’ll need to build Noelle up more so she can put out explosive damage.

On the other hand, I’m still thinking about my Traveler party, the one I want to hold back a little on, because being too strong makes the game boring.

The Traveler (Pyro), for consistency with the story, LOVE Noelle, and Furina, who is slowly starting to become LOVE, are locked in. What do I do about the last slot?

For now I’ve got Nahida in there because she makes gathering easy, but the downside is that she’s too strong in combat.

2026/01/19 Update#

I cleared Song of the Welkin Moon Prelude: The Journey Home. While I was playing, thinking stuff like “Ineffa’s thighs are nice” and “doesn’t she overlap with Noelle as a character?”, it turned out to be unbelievably heavy, and I was stunned.

It was so heavy that after clearing it, I went for a walk in Liyue, collecting Stained Masks.

The sample size is extremely small, but RINGING FATE, for one, makes me feel like Chinese otaku are weirdly into amnesia and the like. Especially treating memories as data.

Is this what they call the zeitgeist? Maybe the times are catching up to Lain, who insisted that memory is just a record.

Right now the gacha has someone who looks like the leader(?) of Nod-Krai, plus Ineffa. I can’t decide whether to pull.

By the way, about the Interlude Chapter “Paralogism”: it’s a prerequisite for advancing the Nod-Krai Archon Quest, and to start it, it seems you need to complete the Sumeru Interlude first.

I don’t know why the Interludes were optional until now, but this time it’s mandatory, apparently. It feels like the story is heading toward its conclusion, which is kind of scary.

To sum up, here are the dependencies I figured out this session.

• Nod-Krai Archon Quest
  • Interlude Chapter “Paralogism”
    • Sumeru Interlude
      • Somebody’s Story Quest
    • Chasm Interlude
      • Arataki Itto’s Story Quest
        • Sangonomiya Kokomi’s Story Quest

Complicated.